Nonprofits CRM – Using Your CRM for Fundraising and More in 2023

Cloud-based CRM software serves as essential support for marketers, salespeople, and customer service representatives on a daily basis.

However, CRM tools are not limited to businesses that sell products or services; they can also be highly beneficial for nonprofit organizations, commonly known as not-for-profits or not-business entities.

Nonprofits can leverage cloud-based CRM systems for various purposes, collectively referred to as nonprofits CRM.

A nonprofit may be interested in using cloud-based CRM as a donor management system or for donor management, volunteer management, creating fundraising pages, or tracking a fundraising event.

It enables effective donor management, including that of donor data, facilitating personalized communication, and streamlining fundraising efforts.

By harnessing the power of CRM, nonprofits can enhance their operational efficiency, optimize donor management, organize their donor data, strengthen donor relationships, and maximize their impact.

One significant advantage of nonprofit organizations is their charitable or tax-exempt status. Any monetary donations made to these organizations are not subject to income tax.

This favorable tax treatment encourages individuals and businesses to contribute to nonprofit causes, supporting their missions and initiatives across various niches, industries, and interests.

Nonprofits can be found in fields such as education, research, science, religion, and many others.

It’s important to note that in the nonprofit sector, CRM is known as a constituent relationship management system, rather than customer relationship management software.

67% of nonprofit organizations use a Customer Relationship Management.

This distinction reflects the focus on managing relationships with various stakeholders, including donors, volunteers, members, and supporters. Nonprofits prioritize engaging and nurturing these constituents to foster long-term relationships and drive their mission forward.

If you are new to the concept of nonprofits utilizing CRM software, we highly recommend you continue reading to explore the immense benefits and opportunities that this powerful combination can offer.

By adopting CRM technology tailored to the unique needs of nonprofit organizations, you can unlock new levels of donor management, efficiency, engagement, and success in achieving your philanthropic goals.

If the marriage between nonprofits and CRM software is something you’re new to, we recommend you continue reading.

In this detailed guide, we will share the best free cloud-based CRM for nonprofits that are easy to use, delve into the best practices and benefits of nonprofits using CRM, discuss how to mobilize fundraising efforts via the nonprofit software, and introduce some steps for implementing CRM today.

Table of Contents

What Is CRM Nonprofit Software?

In the intro, we defined a nonprofit, but how exactly would you explain a CRM nonprofit software?

As we said, cloud-based CRM in this instance means constituent relationship management and not customer relationship management.

A constituent in the world of nonprofits is someone who belongs to the organization and can vote, elect, and appoint someone else into a role. This may also be referred to as membership management.

Since nonprofits are well, not-for-profit, they don’t deal with customers, but more these constituents instead.

A constituent, by the way, is also another word for donors and sponsors, or those who provide the funding necessary to keep the nonprofit progressing.

Whether cloud-based CRM systems manage customers or constituents, there are still many nonprofit CRM software options out there that a nonprofit could choose from.

Later in this guide, we’ll share some pointers on how a nonprofit can narrow down their nonprofit CRM solution options, but for now, just know that the options for management tools are indeed quite plentiful.

How a CRM Can Help Nonprofits

Data Reporting
Email Automation
List Segmentation
Donation Management and Processing
Follow up Quickly
Manage and Track More Than One Event

Nonprofits may have more or less cashflow depending on your donors or sponsors, which means you often limit your spending.

While you try to avoid extraneous spending, know that nonprofit CRM software is anything but.

Cloud-based CRM systems for small nonprofits and large ones alike can help nonprofits in a multitude of ways, including the following.

Data Reporting

Instead of marketing or sales campaigns, nonprofits have events and fundraisers used to bring on new donors and generate interest in the cause.

Data reporting through your nonprofit CRM solution lets your organization keep track of whether you’re meeting goals, and, if you fell short, just how short it was.

Some of the trackable metrics to study about donor management are email open rates, campaign responses, peak donation times, overall fiscal activity, financial transactions and amounts, donor demographics, and other donor data.

By having this information in one place, your nonprofit can focus its efforts on more profitable donors and events that are more advantageous to the organization.

Understanding CRM for Nonprofits – A Video:

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pe5VBCq3b8&t=148s” title=”Understanding CRM for Nonprofits”]

Email Automation

You can use email to send event invites to attendees for your nonprofit’s upcoming event, allowing you to stay in touch with current and former donors. Email is also handy for newsletters.

Given the importance of email in marketing, if a cloud-based CRM software can automate any part of the process, this is ideal.

This way, no member of the nonprofit is stuck in front of the computer, waiting for just the right time to hit send.

The degree of email customization offered through a nonprofit CRM solution also makes automation an appealing option.

From personalized headlines to email bodies and more, your organization can still send out emails people want to read yet put less effort into it using a nonprofit CRM software.

List Segmentation

Rather than separating leads into buckets, nonprofits do this with their constituents or donors.

Each of these constituents has its own preferences, interests, and needs or pain points. In understanding those, you can reach out to the ones whose visions most closely align with your nonprofit’s.

List segmentation via your nonprofit CRM solution keeps the constituent list organized and easily accessible, and even better, you get to choose the fields in which segmentation occurs.

Whether you separate your constituents based on their age, gender, location, job title, income, donation history, or more, it’s all up to you. Then the nonprofit CRM software makes it happen.

Use EngageBay’s free CRM for nonprofits to further your noble cause

Donation Management and Processing

Here’s where constituent relationship management really defines itself, in its online donor management and donation processing capabilities.

While you hope to process funds and donations often, the method you may currently use for donor management now is perhaps sort of clunky and slow.

You wish there was a way to make the process smoother and simpler, and with a nonprofit CRM solution, you may have your wish granted.

By automating certain parts of processing donations and simplifying others, your staff can take a breather, as it’s no longer their responsibility to go through each donation and manually process it.

This saves your organization time, something all of us want to have more of, and it reduces the rate of human error, which is all but inevitable when juggling numbers all the time.

From pledges to gifs in honorarium, gifts in memoriam, gifts-in-kind, and regular donations, accepting and processing donor management is no headache anymore.

Since you’ve shortened your donations processing time, you also won’t have to wait as long for the funds to finalize, which is a relief.

Follow up Quickly

A potential donor just got back to you, but you’re slammed today. If you forget to respond to them soon enough, then you might miss out on their donation.

Your cloud-based nonprofit CRM software can keep you up to date on who needs to hear back from you or a fellow staff member quickly via notifications and alerts.

Further, automated follow-up tasks put less onus on you to always be available to respond, as the nonprofit CRM software lets you schedule replies.

The relationships you build with your constituents now can pay back dividends later, so it’s important to do all you can to nurture and engage those relationships with the help of constituent management software.

Manage and Track More Than One Event

Have you gotten a slew of events lined up on your nonprofit’s calendar?

Not only can you trust in your nonprofit CRM for creating these events successfully, but when you get busy, you can also use these management tools to track each event, enabling 360-degree event management capabilities.

From sending advertisements and event schedules to boost event attendance, executing event registration, selling event tickets, tracking those who agree to attend and those who turn down the request, and processing and issuing tickets, this is a lot to do while managing a nonprofit and an event at the same time.

Also, when more than one event is going on at once, you could accidentally get your wires crossed. Issuing a ticket to your constituent for the wrong event could cause a blemish in your professional relationship.

Your cloud-based nonprofit CRM keeps all your events organized so you can avoid these embarrassing gaffes.

What to Consider When Choosing a Nonprofit CRM

The value of a nonprofit CRM has never been clearer to you. You’d like to add a CRM to your nonprofit’s arsenal for fundraising, but how do you choose the right software?

Here are some pointers to keep in mind.

The Number of People Who Will Use It

Are you part of a small nonprofit or are you a mid-sized one instead? Depending on how you answer that question, you need to be especially careful when reviewing nonprofit CRM pricing packages.

Many nonprofit CRM service providers charge by user. The more members of your nonprofit, the more users you have. This often translates to a pretty hefty monthly or annual fee.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you should forego a CRM if you’re a bigger nonprofit. You just need to have an equally sizable budget or maybe limit who gets access to the nonprofit CRM software.

The Onboarding and Training Process

Learning any new software can be difficult, including CRM software. You want to work with a CRM provider that will provide training on how their software works so you and your team can quickly adjust.

Equally as important is onboarding. Some software companies will charge a fee for helping you leave your current software to get set up on theirs, others will do it for free. Choose the latter if you can.

Its Features

As you shop around for your nonprofit CRM, you’ll research plenty of software options. Don’t just assume that because some CRMs share the same features that they’ll all offer the same thing.

Scan through each CRM’s list of features to ensure they gel with what you need.

How to Use a CRM to Fundraise

Now that you’ve begun narrowing down your options, you want to make the most of your nonprofit CRM. Here are the features and tools within a nonprofit CRM that are made for fundraising.

Create Constituent Profiles

You’ve already segmented your list of constituents per the advice earlier in this guide, so now you should do something more with them.

In making constituent profiles for better donor management or membership management, you can get brief but effective snapshots of each of the constituents who could become potential donors.

The profile should include such information as:

The constituent’s contact information, such as their full name, phone number, email address, work address, home address, and social media handles
Their level of online engagement
Their advocacy activities
The channels in which they give the most often
Which events they attend and how many
Their resume of volunteer work
Their history of donations
The means of communication they prefer most
Their interests and hobbies
Any related relationships on an organizational level, as well as those on a corporate and familial level
A brief biography

In having this information compiled into a profile, you can quickly access it for better donor management and if you want to learn more about a potential donor.

It’s also much easier to qualify and disqualify donors based on this information, so if they’re not a fit, you’ll know that much sooner.

Now donor management becomes a cinch.

Also, by reading up on your donor, when you have an initial meeting with them about the event management or donations, your knowledge might impress them and improve donor relationships.

That could make them more likely to agree to do business with you, adding to your growing roster of long-term donors and sponsors you can rely on.

Matching Gifts

Another interesting option for making the most of your cloud-based nonprofit CRM software on a fundraising level is using the software for matching gifts.

If you’re not aware of what matching gifts are, this is a type of corporate program where if a company donates a certain amount, that amount could be doubled.

Let’s say an employee of a donor company decided to give to your nonprofit, and the company wanted to engage in matching gifts.

The employer would then donate the same amount of money, meaning your nonprofit earns twice the donation than they would in a normal donating scenario.

That’s great, but what does it have to do with nonprofit CRM software, you may be asking?

Well, there already exists software out there to introduce the chance for donors to match gifts; you may even use such nonprofit CRM software yourself.

By integrating your CRM with a matching gift software, you can take the latter software much further.

Now you have the capability of tracking how eligible any donor is to matching gifts. You can also customize your online donation forms, adding a field to increase the chances of donations being doubled.

Once you start obtaining more donor profiles who do match gifts, you can then segment them into their own unique list for better donor management.

This list might receive unique email communications separate from the rest of your donors.

Whether you highlight specific gift-matching donor profiles in a newsletter-style or just send them a thank you, it’s important to acknowledge the donating efforts of your sponsors or donors.

Besides, in doing so, more of your donors will see that others have matched gifts, which just may inspire them to do so themselves.

How to Choose the Best CRM for Your Nonprofit

As we talked about earlier in this guide, your options for cloud-based CRM for nonprofits are nearly endless. Which are considered the best nonprofit CRM software for nonprofit organizations?

We’ve narrowed it down to five companies to focus on in your quest for an exemplary cloud-based nonprofit CRM software.

EngageBay

The first company we want to highlight as having a top CRM for nonprofits is EngageBay.

Their CRM is always free, so even if your nonprofit finds it doesn’t need the other features catered more towards marketers and salespeople, you can always rely on EngageBay’s nonprofit CRM software at no cost to you.

That’s not on a trial or demo basis either, but EngageBay is always free. And most importantly, it is easy to use.

With more than 28,000 customers choosing EngageBay for their daily business needs, you may find that it’s the right CRM for nonprofits like yours.

One of the standout features is EngageBay CRM Telephony, which lends you contextual relevance and data based on constituents’ past interactions with your staff.

The Lead Scoring system is applicable to those constituents as well, allowing you to assign scores to donors who may be most willing and least willing to donate to your nonprofit’s cause.

Through syncing email with your CRM, you can automate communications, track who’s talking to which constituent, and then choose to follow up when necessary.

The reporting will also quite please your nonprofit organizations, as EngageBay’s comprehensive reporting gives you all the data that matters most to further your organization.

Their lead biographies, which you can use for donors, will not only tell you more about every constituent you may work with but clue you in on past communications with this person and how well those went.

You can then streamline and smarten your next contact with the donor to keep the relationship moving smoothly.

Here’s a YouTube video walking you through EngageBay’s nonprofit CRM and one such feature it offers, email personalization.

Nutshell

Our next choice as a good CRM for nonprofits is Nutshell.

Log in instantly anywhere that’s most convenient to you when using Nutshell, such as your smartphone if you’re away from the office.

Then you can create and track the business cards of constituents so you never have to guess how to reach someone in an instant.

These business cards translate to CRM contacts you can edit, add to, and delete if the working relationship were to end.

The automation of Nutshell is a feature that has won this nonprofit CRM software much-deserved acclaim.

If you upgrade your membership to Nutshell Pro, then you can use automated email sequences among your staff that are sent gradually to generate a response.

You also gain access to a sales automation suite designed for maintaining and nurturing all your donor relationships.

Nutshell is not a free nonprofit CRM, and you’ll pay $19 monthly for the Nutshell Starter membership and $35 monthly for Nutshell Pro.

Keap

Keap, the former name of Infusionsoft, is a top-rated marketing automation CRM, so you could use it as a CRM for nonprofits as well.

The company calls its marketing automation “next-level,” as it has lead scoring, list segmentation via tags, campaign building for events, and templated landing pages for bringing in more leads or donors.

Most of Keap’s users, 90 percent, have had success with more follow-ups from leads after using the nonprofit CRM, so that may convince you to give Keap a try.

Their client management CRM includes access to Smart Forms for capturing pertinent information as well as communication personalization, email and messaging automation, and syncing with Outlook, Gmail, and other email programs you likely already use and love.

Like Nutshell, you would have to pay if you wanted to use Keap for nonprofit CRM purposes.

The basic Keap Gro plan costs $79 a month, the more advanced Keap Pro plan is $149 a month, and the most complete plan, called Infusionsoft, is priced at $199 a month.

ActiveCampaign

We also highly recommend ActiveCampaign for your nonprofit CRM constituent management needs.

Their CRM software includes a slew of features any growing organization wants, among them assigning tasks to other staff members, notification emails when you need to follow up with a donor, and scoring leads or constituents.

You can also segment incoming donors so you only target the ones most receptive to your organization.

The automation services ActiveCampaign offers are intended for nurturing and relationship-building as well as giving you a more hands-off approach to running your nonprofit organizations.

Detailed reporting lets you select the metrics you want to see more of in a report format.

If you decided to use ActiveCampaign as your CRM for nonprofits, you have four plans to select from. The Lite plan costs $9 a month, the Plus plan $49 a month, the Professional plan $129 a month, and the Enterprise plan $229 a month.

Bitrix24

Finally, we have to talk about Bitrix24, which is another (mostly) free CRM for nonprofits that we consider one of the best.

While only 12 users can sign up for a free Bitrix24 membership at once, if you have a smaller nonprofit, this shouldn’t pose much of an issue.

With the CRM, you can take advantage of features like workflow automation for keeping tasks organized, email marketing and marketing automation, invoicing and quotes, and contact management.

If your nonprofit is on social media, you can even integrate with your most-used platforms to spread your social media reach even further.

You can trust in Bitrix24 for communications among your fellow nonprofit staff. Keep up with everyone via instant messenger and group messaging.

If you ever grow your organization to more than 12 people, you would have to pay $46.92 a month or more to continue using Bitrix24.

No matter which CRM for nonprofits caught your eye on the list above, you can only choose one. To that end, we recommend you explore each of the five nonprofit CRM software to see which you like the most.

Then you should get in touch with the company and request a demo to determine if the software solution gels with you and your staff.

Do make sure your CRM for nonprofits includes data reporting, email marketing automation, list segmentation, donation processing, follow-up automation, and constituent profiles like we discussed before in the guide.

If your CRM is lacking the above features or others you deem important, then you’ll want to keep looking.

Steps for Implementing a Nonprofit CRM Platform

Choosing a Project Team
Determining Your Methodology for the Project
Identifying CRM Needs
Software Implementation
Tracking Project Phases

You’ve chosen your nonprofit for a CRM platform that helps your cause based on one of the options above, and now you’re ready to begin implementing it.

To do so, you need to follow five steps: choosing a project team and assembling them, determining the methodology for the project, identifying your CRM needs, implementing the software solution, and tracking project phases.

Choosing a Project Team

The first step is an important one, as you’ll be busy picking and assembling a team within your nonprofit that can take on various roles.

You may have to hire professionals for the purposes of IT and project execution if these parties are not already a part of your nonprofit.

Stakeholders like these may include a team of up to six people, but if your nonprofit is bigger, then the need to increase the size of your team is one you want to pay attention to.

Determining Your Methodology for the Project

Next, you can move on to the project methodology, with two popular ones the agile scrum model and the conventional waterfall model.

With agile scrum, you have subtasks that may last between one and three weeks each.

To prepare for each of these subtask phases, meetings are held with the above parties to assess how well the implementation of the software is going.

The conventional waterfall model has a more sequential stage of phases, whereupon one ending, the next occurs, and so on and so forth.

Either model is workable for nonprofits, but it’s on you and your fellow team to select the one that’s most effective.

Identifying CRM Needs

Every nonprofit has some things they’ll need out of a CRM, and in identifying these, you may use a bottom-up or top-down model.

A bottom-up model requires you to first track all systems and activities within your nonprofit that you use regularly.

Next, you’d want to assess the management of these systems, the processes, and how much data you use to deduce whether the system is effective.

A top-down model calls for a review of your stakeholder communication goals and how these can be met, even if you don’t have a multitude of resources for doing so.

The lack of resources may be something you aspire to close with a CRM, but you can’t do that without knowing where these gaps exist.

EngageBay’s free CRM for nonprofits is all you will ever need for your charity organization

Software Implementation

With all that sorted, you can now begin implementing the nonprofit CRM software using either consultants or in-house staff.

There are benefits to both, as consultants are experts in CRM and can help you get over any learning curves or difficulties in the first days and weeks of usage.

While going in-house saves you money compared to using consultants, some of that expertise may be lacking, so decide carefully.

Tracking Project Phases

The phases of choosing your CRM to implementing it are worth documenting, especially because there’s always a possibility you may change your nonprofit CRM software in the future.

If you do, then you’ll have a road map of what to expect that you can share with your fellow staff. You may also find you experience fewer hurdles the second or third time around, as you’re much more familiar with what to do.

Conclusion

Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) software designed for nonprofits offers a powerful tool for building and nurturing donor relationships. It enables your organization to cultivate meaningful connections with your current donors while strategically planning for the future.

By adopting a CRM system, you gain a comprehensive and centralized view of your constituents, providing a 360-degree perspective within a single platform.

The primary purpose of nonprofit CRM software is to strengthen your engagement with donors, volunteers, members, and other stakeholders.

It goes beyond simply managing contact information; it empowers you to understand your constituents on a deeper level, enabling personalized interactions and tailored communication.

A robust CRM solution allows you to track donor preferences, giving history, and engagement levels, giving you valuable insights to inform your outreach strategies.

With nonprofit CRM software, you can build upon existing donor relationships by analyzing past interactions and identifying opportunities for further engagement.

By leveraging this information, you can create targeted campaigns, personalized communications, and customized experiences that resonate with your constituents, fostering a sense of loyalty and commitment to your cause.

Additionally, CRM software equips your organization with the tools to plan for the future. You can use data analytics and reporting features to identify trends, forecast fundraising goals, and make informed decisions.

By understanding your constituents’ preferences, you can develop targeted fundraising initiatives, plan events, and allocate resources more effectively.

Nonprofit CRM software serves as a strategic tool that enables you to streamline your operations, optimize your fundraising efforts, and maximize your impact.

Whether you prefer a cloud-based solution or another method of utilizing CRM, there are numerous nonprofit CRM software options available to suit your organization’s unique needs.

Nonprofit cloud platforms offer the advantage of scalability, accessibility, and data security. However, there are also on-premises or hybrid solutions that may better align with your infrastructure and data management preferences.

The key is to explore the various CRM solutions available, considering factors such as functionality, ease of use, integration capabilities, and cost-effectiveness.

By adopting a nonprofit CRM solution, you unlock the potential to deepen your donor relationships, streamline your operations, and elevate your impact.

Take the time to research and evaluate different CRM options to find the one that best aligns with your organization’s goals and requirements.

Embrace the power of CRM technology to drive your nonprofit forward, empowering you to make a lasting difference in the communities you serve.

We highlighted five of the best CRM for nonprofits, and using any of these can help you achieve your organizational goals.

By having a plan for implementing the new software solution, you can ease your whole staff into the new changes without any major hiccups.

Nonprofits CRM – Using Your CRM for Fundraising and More [2023 Updated]